Dremel 1830 Vibration

[tgiro]

Has anyone, using this saw, experienced excess vibration at certain speeds. Mine becomes almost unusable for the speed settings between about 9:00 and 2:00 (not sure of the speeds at those settings).

Two emails to Dremel support resulted in negative response. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this and if they were able to do anything about it.

I've had this saw for about five months and really like it. I'd like it a lot better if I could speed up my cuts a little bit. I hardly ever cut at the super high speeds.

[mowerman1193]

I have the Dremel 1800 which is about the same saw except mine has a light and the disk sander..My saw has vibration at somewhere around 1-2 o-clock position..That is really the only area that has somewhat bad vibration..It used to be a larger window more like anything real slow say anything before the 9 o-clock or anything after 12 o-clock..This was before I got a stand and bolted it down..When I did bolt it down I used a piece of old carpet padding to put between the stand and the saw before bolting it down..Then I ran the saw and varied speeds as I tighten the bolts down..This helped cut the vibration down a lot..

By the sound of yours I bet you do not have it bolted down??

Hope this helps...
Kevin

[tstagman]

Yes, I have the Dremel 1830 and have the same problem. At about 30%, it wants to pull the bolts out of my stand. Mine smooths out at about 50-55% of full speed, so I always cut everything at or above that. I've just learned to live with it for now. Since I only paid $129 for it at Home Depot, I really didn't expect a top notch saw. It was my first scroll saw and I wasn't even sure if I would like scrolling when I bought it, so I didn't want to invest a lot until I found out if I would like it. Now I'm hooked and as soon as (or if) the economy ever picks back up, I'm headed straight to a Dewalt 788.

[tgiro]

, Kevin!

Actually, the saw is bolted down to a table I built for it out of 2X4 & 3/4 ply.
I'm adding a couple snapshots.


Your trick of running the saw at different speeds and adjusting the bolts holding the saw to the table helped. But - wait - there's more.

While I was sitting there, I checked the bolts holding the table together. Gee - guess what vibration does to bolts, even ones with lock washers. Any way, after re-tightening those. My machine has smoothed out considerably. Still a little wild between 10:00 & 11:00 and around 1:00, but otherwise pretty stable.

I have a rug pad between the saw & table and some rather stiff rug under the table. This will make the work much more enjoyable.

Lessons Learned -- Check bolt tightness every now & then.

Originally Posted by mowerman1193

I have the Dremel 1800 which is about the same saw except mine has a light and the disk sander..My saw has vibration at somewhere around 1-2 o-clock position..That is really the only area that has somewhat bad vibration..It used to be a larger window more like anything real slow say anything before the 9 o-clock or anything after 12 o-clock..This was before I got a stand and bolted it down..When I did bolt it down I used a piece of old carpet padding to put between the stand and the saw before bolting it down..Then I ran the saw and varied speeds as I tighten the bolts down..This helped cut the vibration down a lot..

By the sound of yours I bet you do not have it bolted down??

Hope this helps...
Kevin

[mowerman1193]

You know another thing I did to sort of tune my saw was to take the saw apart and clean off all the old grease from the bearings/bushings..While it was apart I noticed that the arm in the back part of the saw that connects the upper and lower arms together was worn bad and had very little grease..I ordered new rod and roll pins I then oiled it up good and when I put it back together it ran a lot smoother..At the time I did this the saw was only 6-8 months old and I had only made a dozen or so projects with it..I just used a light oil like 3-in-1.. I now take this apart every 20 or so hours to oil this up..They have no access spot to oil those roll pins on that back arm..I know on another scroll saw group there was several people with the Dremel saying that they was getting a squeaking and oiling was not fixing it..other say they was running out of tension adjustment (this was my problem )..as those holes in that rear arm ware out the top arm starts to sag or drop down..next thing you know your blades are getting to long to fit in the saw..Its amazing how much smoother the saw will run just by keeping it oiled up good and keeping it clean out too..

Kevin

[tstagman]

Thanks for the info Kevin. I'll take mine apart this weekend and check it. Mine has 4 oiling points with rubber seal caps that I oil regularly but it's possible it's not getting to the right places. Mine started squeaking with only about 4-5 hrs. on it and the oiling stopped that, but again it still might not be getting where it's supposed to.

I built my stand out of heavy gauge Hilti strut (no bolts, all welded seams) with a 1" particle board top. I have industrial vibration pads on the feet, but maybe I better put some between the saw and the table also.

Thanks again for the info. I would sure like to be able to use my lower speeds when I need to.

[tstagman]

By the way Tgiro, that sure is a nice looking dog you have.

[GWhit]

My dremel 1800 has some vibration but not enough to cause me a problem. I don't have it bolted down, just 2 rubber backed bathroom type rugs I got at a yard sale. The rugs helped a lot. Will repost the pic.
Gordon
My problem has been keeping blades tight enough. They pull out of the holder if I try to tighten them near as much as I did on the old no-name saw. Now they wander all over and give me fits from not being adjusted properly. G.

[rja]

My Dremel 1830 scroll saw has a "shake zone" from 9:00 to 11:00 on the speed dial. At lower speeds its is smooth, and at higher speeds it smooths out again.

[KtownScroller]

Originally Posted by GWhit

My problem has been keeping blades tight enough. They pull out of the holder if I try to tighten them near as much as I did on the old no-name saw. Now they wander all over and give me fits from not being adjusted properly. G.

Can you replace the bottom blade clamp finger screw with a socket cap screw? That's what I did and I use a "T" handle Allen wrench to loosen and tighten the blade on the lower clamp. This method makes it easy to get at the clamp and you can tighten it up as tight as you want it. I left the top blade clamp with the finger screw as is. The system works like a charm! Good luck.